Orio Litta

Ok, another day, another gelato, and everything is looking brighter 🙂

Today we only walked 16km from Santa Cristina to Orio Litta. It was another hot day but much shorter and a little more pleasant than yesterday.

A few interesting sights broke the monotony of the way and the Ostello Grangia Benedettina at the end was very welcoming.

My feet feel ok, no more throbbing. And my problem toe nail is not hurting, even if it still looks gross. 🤮 Don’t worry, I won’t add any pictures of it to this post.

The Ostello is nearly full as there’s a group from the BBC here making a documentary about the Via Francigena. The filming crew is staying at the Ostello too.

Tomorrow we walk to Piacenza – which is a big town of about 100000 people – but first we need to cross the Po river by boat. It’s really a tiny boat that Danilo, a local, mans on his free time. The crossing should take about 20 minutes but will save us at least 3km walk.

As I write this, I notice that Kees and Rudolf just arrived at the Ostello. We had lost track of them yesterday and thought they’d gone ahead a few stages by train, especially Kees who was struggling with burning feet. Rudolf on the other hand had a problem with his boot which had broken open! Somehow he managed to patch it up with tape.

Unfortunately my foot problem cannot be fixed like that. I need to be patient and wait for my infected toe to heal fully. It’s getting better so I’m optimistic.

As for the burning on the soles of my feet, it’s almost fully recovered now. Having said that, on Friday we’ll have our longest day on the trail, about 33km. It’ll be a challenging day, that’s for sure. Not only the length but also lots of asphalt walk again.

I bought new silicone inner soles to add some padding to my boots and soften the beating but not sure I’ll have enough space for two soles plus my orthotics. I’ll test all this tomorrow and hopefully come up with a good plan for Friday. 😏

Ok, I’ll post a few more pics now and then put my feet up again until dinner time. I need plenty of rest to prepare for the next few days.